Halloween Marathon: We Need To Talk About Kevin & Absentia (Double feature)

I had originally wanted to do these two separately.  These both got third highest amounts of votes in the Halloween polls for psychological thrillers and everything else horror.  BUT, after trimming my movie rundown, I still have two movies that I really want to check out for this Halloween marathon so that means, mega movie night tonight. YUP!

I’m going to say right now that watching anything other than Friday the 13th sounds so refreshing.  I’ll have a huge recap on November 1st once I’ve gotten all the business taken care of. Friday the 13th made me forget what an actual horror movie felt like.  I never was genuinely scared in this marathon. Thats saying a lot because I’m so easily frightened.

Now, I needed to get myself in the right state of mind to watch these but I really wanted to, along with probably 4 other ones on the initial poll.  I’m sure I’ll fit those in eventually, just not in this marathon 🙂 Lets get the show on the road.  After all, we do have 2 movies to talk about!

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN (2011)

Director: Lynne Ramsay

Cast: Tilda Swinton, Ezra Miller, John C. Reilly, Jasper Newell, Ashley Gerasimovich

Kevin’s mother struggles to love her strange child, despite the increasingly vicious things he says and does as he grows up. But Kevin is just getting started, and his final act will be beyond anything anyone imagined.- IMDB

I have no idea how to sum up the movie so I’m just going to use whats on IMDB.  However, as much as its showing the course of Kevin’s mother (Tilda Swinton) trying to love her son, its also about her trying to make sense of everything that lead to his final act.

We Need To Talk about Kevin is one of those psychological personality analysis of two people.  In this case, its Tilda Swinton’s character as Kevin’s mother flipping through the upbringing of his son’s life and figuring out why he did that final act.  What was the reasoning behind it and whether it was essentially her fault as everyone else seems to treat her like she’s the one responsible.  It a true look at the whole nature versus nuture story of what affects growth and development the most.  I get that as I’m watching it, except I feel that the material is a little too deep to be brought to the big screen.  Its the same reason I was happy to read Gone Girl or The Lovely Bones before seeing a movie.  I’m guessing the novel dives into a more balanced two sides of the story view.  In this one, Ezra Miller’s Kevin gets such a small part although the younger version of him really does bring out a little of his character already.  Being based on a source material that probably is pretty deep is hard to bring it to the big screen and now I really want to check that out and revisit this movie because I feel like I might appreciate it more.

Although, I do think the material is not shown appropriately or could possibly be more effective.  There is no doubt that the performances were all around amazing.  This is my first time watching everyone except John C. Reilly and I can’t even remember what I saw him in before. I know understand why everyone raves about the stellar performances by Tilda Swinton because she grasped her role very well.  I really understood her perspective of this and just the confusion and despair of being in her situation.  I’m in the stage of life where its almost time to decide when to have kids and this really clings on to make you wonder: who can predict how your child turns out.  Its funny because it makes me think about a Chinese saying about  how who you are at 3 determines who you will be at 80.  I guess, nature plays a role but nurture is also a big thing because the script always gets in a little bit about how there are a lot of similarities between Kevin and his mother.  On the other hand, I might have wanted to see more of Ezra Miller’s role but that ending definitely was thought provoking.

Not really a horror per se, but as a psychological thriller it does hit a few buttons with its awesome performances.

ABSENTIA (2011)

Director: Mike Flanagan

Cast: Katie Parker, Courtney Bell, Dave Levine, Justin Gordon, Morgan Peter Brown

 Its been seven years since Tricia’s (Courtney Bell) husband Daniel (Morgan Peter Brown) has gone missing.  Now, she’s pregnant and slowly learning to move on with her life as she prepares to file for his death certificate under the reason of absentia.  Her sister Callie (Katie Parker) drops by to help her pack up and move forward. This is when they realize that maybe  there’s something more to the disappearance of Daniel.

Goodness, thats a bad summary I wrote up there.  Its okay, I really just don’t want to say too much.  Absentia is one of the more creepy movies.  The first time a creepy scene came in I turned off the movie for a solid 5 minutes before deciding to turn it back on.  Because you know what? I need to tough it out since Halloween is literally around the corner.

Absentia can be split into two parts. The first part is creepy and builds up the story of Tricia and how she inner struggle while Callie is also finding herself and trying to be helpful to her sister.  At the same time, they both have some creepy incidents that happen.  The second half takes a abrupt turn and changes a few factors in Tricia’s life especially but pulls Callie into a more main role as she starts seeing that there might be more to the disappearance and may be linked to a bigger picture.

Absentia is very much an independent horror film and some of the shots and how they move around is obvious that fact but it has a kick ass story.  I was totally pulled in and even though the start scared me so much, I’m happy that I toughed it out because the director and writer Mike Flanagan is fantastic.  He knows how to put a story like this one into a movie and balance the right factors, giving the right scares and the perfect sound and silence and even when to reveal or not to reveal anything.

Maybe its because I’ve been sitting around watching campy movies for the last month that I’m even easier pleased and I was extremely jumpy but Absentia has an awesome story behind a good cast and the atmosphere that Mike Flanagan puts together feels so perfect. He takes you on twists and turns and times them really well.  I don’t usually rate horror harshly (unless its for Shitfest) but I do know when I have a great one and this one is a must-watch horror experience on so many levels.

Another double feature done!

Have you seen We Need to Talk about Kevin? What did you think of the performances? Which aspect was the best in this movie? Did you feel that there should’ve been a stronger emphasis on the grown up Kevin (although this movie was already pretty long)?

How about Absentia? Have you seen it? Did you like how it ended (because I did!)? Was it on some level creepy for you? 

Halloween Marathon: 1408 (2007)

While charging up for the next batch of Friday the 13ths, I had a few days to catch up on the other selection.  Coming up with quite a good bit of votes was 1408.  I’ve been meaning to watch this one for a while.  It has quite an appeal to me because I like both John Cusack and Samuel Jackson a lot, plus, it has that one setting creepy feeling to it.  I don’t remember if I’ve ever seen a trailer because its been quite a while since its been released but I decided that I’d give it a go.

Director: Mikael Hafstrom

Cast: John Cusack, Samuel L Jackson, Mary McCormack, Jasmine Jessica Anthony, Tony Shalhoub

Mike Enslin (John Cusack) is a paranormal investigator (of sorts) that focuses on proving whether certain known hauntings actually exist or its just a hoax.  In his career, he has learned that many are the latter and he has grown to get used to that and usually doesn’t expect too much. When he gets note of the haunted 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel in New York, he ends up spending a night there despite the hotel manager, Gerald Olin (Samuel L Jackson) using every way possible to prevent him to do so. His night there proved to be more than he ever thought he would encounter and yet maybe there was some truth to the warnings that he’s gotten.

As many of you know, I’m a huge reader. However, I haven’t read anything of Stephen King. No hate messages, ok? I’m planning on remedying that soon.  Still, I’ve watched a good bit of the adaptations of Stephen King’s work both movies and TV.  1408 is based on a short story that King wrote.  I’m actually pretty intrigued at how this one reads because its an interesting little movie.  1408 has a lot of promise to begin with.  It seemed to be in the spirits and haunting enveloped in a hotel room.  It has the perfect stage to bring in an impressive story.  I had to give this one a little bit more thought because yes, it was creepy and chilling and it had a lot of jump scares (which is effective for me because I know I get scared).  Except it feels like its more effective in the first two-thirds of the movies and once we run into the last third and final act, it changes its tone a little.  Its a little bit more predictable however it also wraps up in pretty logical way. What really works for 1408 is that the first part sets up the stage so that we have a good idea of getting to know who Mike Enslin is and how he comes to learn about 1408 and getting into the room.  When you get in the room, the middle chunk focuses on the events that goes on in the room which includes a lot of creepy events strung together that slowly build up to the final act.  Its a pretty good psychological ride at the same time as wondering whether there is someone behind these 1408 hauntings or whether its a spirit or maybe something even more than that.

For the most part, John Cusack is the center of attention in this as he battles whatever is in 1408.  He plays off of nothing. Its a pretty intense psychological trip for him when he goes from not really believing in the paranormal or going to the other side of the spectrum where he encounters weird, creepy, shocking events and even dives a little into his own past and we learn a little through these events about who he is and the things he’s gone through. John Cusack was exceptional in this role and I totally loved it.  On the other hand, the supporting roles had extremely small parts.  We start with Tony Shalhoub as his book editor (I think) and the bit bigger role of Gerald Olin, manager of the Dolphin Hotel played by Samual L. Jackson.  The encounter between Olin and Enslin was pretty good to watch.

There is really nothing else to say. Is 1408 a horror psychological thriller or just mainstream horror? I have no idea.  Its not gory even though as we learn about the history of 1408, the pictures of the past deaths in the room was pretty disturbing.  However, the tone the movie takes and the combination of the story and John Cusack’s performance brings in a creepy and chilling watch.  I enjoyed this one a good bit.  Although it wasn’t really scaring me a whole lot by the end, and I actually realized that there was a whole lot of jump scares that made 1408 a pretty intense watch.  I do admit that when I do think about it, it was pretty scary and probably would’ve been even more if I didn’t strategically watch this in the morning 😉

Have you seen 1408? What did you think of it? 

WELCOME TO HALLOWEEN HORROR MONTH!

The polls are closed!

I thank ALL OF YOU for dropping by to put in your votes, leave comments and even like the post.

I kept the results secret so that there will be surprises as to what reviews are going up.  I can’t watch everything in the list but the votes did help me a lot in selecting movies for final rundown which is officially set.

I rarely do midnight posts but I figured this was a good time to announce the beginning of themed month. 🙂

WELCOME TO HALLOWEEN HORROR MONTH!

As promised, Friday the 13th series is the highlight this year.  With a huge series of 12 movies, it’ll keep me extremely occupied.

Unlike last year, I’m more organized and have already started the rundown so expect the first movie review to go up later today.

Also, aside from that, I have selected 10 movies from the polls with the 3 categories: B-Horror, Psycho Thrillers and Everything else horror.  I’m hoping I’ll get through it all.

What else is there to look for? Aside from this, I’m ending the movie marathon with a classic horror which you all will probably give me crap for because I haven’t seen it yet.  I think I mentioned it in previous posts but if you don’t know, then let it be a surprise. Plus, I have two movies I’ve been meaning to watch forever so lets just say, those are my personal choices added in.

I’m aiming at a 26 movies rundown for this month.  Thats a whole lot of writing and reviewing and watching movies (plus sleepless nights).  I hope that I can get everything in.

For those interested in something other than movies, and because I simply love multitasking and making sure I’m busy as a bee, I have one Halloween event planned and some night events that haven’t been set but hopefully I’ll get around to it.  Segments such as My Weekly Adventures, Weekly Photo Challenge will still be around.  I’ll be having a Pinterest Therapy post some undetermined time during the month as well.  As everything other year, there will also be a Halloween special.  I haven’t gotten to deciding what it is but I’m working on it as it draws closer 🙂 And finally, there will be also a very special book review (if not more)!

Plus, I do plan on getting some Halloween baking done.  Any suggestions?

I’m going to try my absolute best to keep things flowing around here and add a little Halloween twist to it all.

ARE YOU READY FOR HALLOWEEN MONTH? LETS GET THIS THING STARTED!